[Solaufein]

The Irony,

I have 3 LODs + textures now in 3Dsmax,
export to .3ds = ok
Load into 3Dexplorblabla.. and convert to .cob = ok ( hierarchy INTACT!!!)

Convert .cob to .pof -> wham, hierachy screwed, half of model gone (LOD0)

grrr..........

Here the latest though:


Did some texture editing, darn ugly 'sept for the wing

[HotSnoJ]

I really like the design. Very orginal.

[TrashMan]

There are plenty of tutorials out there, but they mostly suck, belive me....

1. Scaling - you set it in PCS.
One Truespace grid = xxx meters. (thus, if you set it to 20, then your fighter should be about 1 grid long).

2. LOD's - don't even think of following tutorials that say glue them.
 You make each LOD, and set them all to (0.0.0) coordinates (don't forget to center the axes first).
Make sure their geomety is o.k.


3. Adding turrets - have the hull selected and glue a turret with it, then repeat the proces for all the turrets. (IMPORTANT - you must allways glue the hull (+ 10 turrets if you added them) with the 11th turret, not vice-versa.

4. Adding thrusters - same as turrets.

5. Working in PCS - do it ONLY after the geomety is o.k.

Follow one simple rule when making models - you MUST be able to go from each point of your models grid to another following the lines that bind them.

 Simply test it by putting your .pof file in the Fs2/data/models directory and replace the model name for a container in ships.tbl with yours. Then load FRED2 and look at your "container"...

[KARMA]

Originally posted by TrashMan
There are plenty of tutorials out there, but they mostly suck, belive me....

ipandrews' tutorial is excellent

[Solaufein]

It is, and the texture tutorial it references also,

I believe im done with the LOD's , Hulls, thruster and shield meshes (not doing debris, cant get hold of the booleans), Now the only problem that stands in my way is hierarchy ,since i cant get hold of a newer version of truespace that the free one (version 2) it means no TrueView for me , any tips on doing it the old fashioned way? Cause i cant even find the tools in TS to do it, and what is a local light(TS term)?

Edit: Gets even better, if i take me functional .cob and load it into TS2, i get a nice model, if i then fool around with the glue/unglue, then save it, i get a 1kb file with one loclight in it, so no meshes, doing somthing wrong?

Edit: omg, just had to select all the model i want to save
*slams head into keyboard*

[Solaufein]

I just had this "briliant" idea, I thought, if i'd just ask one of you guys to set up the hierarchy for my model, that would save me a lot of headaches, anyone willing 'n able?

[Rampage]

If I do it for you, you wouldn't learn anything.  But if I tell you where to find information, you might learn a lot.

See my "Post MODding Manual".  It's in the General Freespace forum as the first or second sticky post.

[Solaufein]

Thnx

Edit: Ok, now i have know what the hierarchy must be, now all I need to learn is TS interface (Whoever wrote the program, they never ment for someone to actualy use it, that much is clear)

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Solaufein
Thnx

Edit: Ok, now i have know what the hierarchy must be, now all I need to learn is TS interface (Whoever wrote the program, they never ment for someone to actualy use it, that much is clear)

I dunno. I always thought that TS had a rather elegant interface. It just lacks the kind of lowlevel editting tools that a proper 3d package needs.

[Solaufein]

My problem with TS is that  it has no way(i could find) to display current hierarchy, i.e. what is glued to what as what.

[KARMA]

use keyframe to view hierachy (but i'm not sure it is present in ts2)
it should be located in the top menu bars

[mikhael]

Originally posted by KARMA
use keyframe to view hierachy (but i'm not sure it is present in ts2)
it should be located in the top menu bars

Nope, no KFE in TS2 except as a plugin. Once you get used to how the arrow keys work though, it becomes pretty obvious what is glued where.

[Solaufein]

Thnx, i can do hierarchy now , so far so good

Edit: ok, I got the hierarchy set up like the tutorials state, all with local lights n branching n stuff, Renamed the subobjects/subobjectgroups to the right names. But PCS crashes when I try to save as pof, cob2fs2 doest crash but gives a pof with 1 detail level and merged my thrusters in a separate group, if you guys want to see what I mean PM your email adres to me and i'll send you the cob and pof files.

[HotSnoJ]

I can't wait for this ship. My email is [email protected].

BTW what program is that pic from?

[Solaufein]

Originally posted by HotSnoJ
I can't wait for this ship. My email is [email protected].

BTW what program is that pic from?

It isn't done yet, added some debris yesterday, but i still need it to convert to pof in a decent manner, i guess it has something to do with the names of the hierarchys sub-objects, but i have no idea how to remove the comma's

As for the program, that is 3D explorer, i use it to convert .3ds to .cob, then i do the hierarchy in TS2, then i check it after save with 3D Explorer to see if it  saved ok.

[HotSnoJ]

Originally posted by Solaufein

It isn't done yet, added some debris yesterday, but i still need it to convert to pof in a decent manner, i guess it has something to do with the names of the hierarchys sub-objects, but i have no idea how to remove the comma's

I remember someone removing the coma's with a hex editor, I think.

Anyway PM, maybe I could get you a copy of trueSpace 4.

[Solaufein]

Just saw that 3D Explorer can rename objects/nodes